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Abjad value calculator

Add up the abjad value of Arabic text under the eastern or western letter order, with the value of every letter shown and both totals side by side.

The text

A word, a name or a phrase

Which order

Convention

Six letters, س ش ص ض ظ غ, are valued differently between the two, so the same word can differ by hundreds.

This adds up letters

Abjad values are used for chronograms, for ordering, and in various divinatory and numerological practices. This tool takes no position on any of that and makes no claim that a number means anything.

Abjad value

Type or paste Arabic text and its value appears here.

Letters as numbers

Before the Indian numerals now used everywhere, Arabic wrote numbers with its letters. Each of the twenty-eight has a value, following an ordering remembered as a set of nonsense words, abjad, hawwaz, hutti and the rest, from which the system takes its name.

It has not disappeared. It survives in chronograms, where a line of verse is composed so that its letters add up to the year of the event it commemorates, and in lettering, numbering and ordering of various kinds.

Two orders, and why it matters which

There is no single table. The Mashriqi order, used across the Arab east, is the one most commonly quoted. The Maghribi order of North Africa and Andalusia assigns six letters differently: س, ش, ص, ض, ظ and غ.

The difference is not small. Under the eastern order ش is 300; under the western it is 1000. A word containing one of those six can differ by hundreds depending on which table was intended, which is why this tool asks and then shows you both totals anyway.

What gets counted, and what does not

Short vowels, shadda, sukun and the tatweel are skipped, so a fully vowelled text and a bare one come to the same figure. Hamza in any form counts as alif, alif maqsura as yaa, and the hamza carriers as the letters beneath them.

Taa marbuta is counted as haa, which is the usual treatment, but it is worth knowing that some count it as taa instead. That is 400 rather than 5, which will move a total noticeably. The letter-by-letter breakdown shows what each character was counted as, so a disagreement of that kind is visible rather than buried.

On what the number means

Nothing, as far as this tool is concerned. Abjad values appear in numerological and divinatory practices of several kinds, and views on those range from accepted to firmly rejected. Taking a position is not this page’s business.

What is on offer is arithmetic. A letter has a value in a stated table, the values are added, and the working is shown so you can check it.

Questions

What is abjad?
A system that assigns a number to each of the twenty-eight Arabic letters, following an old ordering that predates the Indian numerals now in everyday use. It survives in chronograms, verses whose letters add up to the year of an event, in lettering and ordering, and in various later traditions.
Why are there two different values for some letters?
Because two orderings are in use. The Mashriqi order is the one most widely quoted across the Arab east. The Maghribi order, used in North Africa and Andalusia, assigns six letters differently: س ش ص ض ظ غ. A word containing any of them will total differently under the two, sometimes by hundreds, so the tool shows both.
Which convention should I use?
Whichever the text you are working with used. For a chronogram or an inscription that usually follows where and when it was written. If you do not know, the tool gives you both figures side by side so you can see whether it even matters for your text, for many words the two agree.
How are hamza and taa marbuta counted?
Hamza in all its forms is counted as alif, and taa marbuta as haa. Alif maqsura counts as yaa. These are the usual treatments, but taa marbuta is the one worth flagging: some count it as taa instead, which is 400 rather than 5 and would change a total substantially. The tool shows which base letter each character was counted as.
Does the tool ignore vowel marks?
Yes. Short vowels, shadda, sukun and the tatweel used to stretch a word are all skipped, so a fully vowelled text and a bare one give the same total. Anything that is not an Arabic letter at all, Latin characters, digits, punctuation, is skipped too, and the tool tells you what it left out.
Does the number mean anything?
This tool makes no claim that it does. Abjad values are used in numerological and divinatory practices of various kinds, and views on those differ sharply. What is offered here is arithmetic: a letter has a value, and the values are added together.

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